BAY AREA LEGISLATURE

ELECTION DIGEST Hancock, Skinner seen as big winners

Carolyn Jones

Published
4:00 am PDT, Thursday, June 5, 2008

Loni Hancock emerged as a big winner in the East Bay on Tuesday night, winning a tight state Senate race by 13 percentage points and seeing her hand-picked successor claim a victory in an Assembly race.

Hancock, who is being termed out of the Assembly, defeated former Assemblywoman Wilma Chan and is all but guaranteed to take over State Sen. President Pro Tem Don Perata's seat in the heavily Democratic Ninth Senate District after the November general election.

Nancy Skinner, an East Bay park district director who was Hancock's pick to succeed her in the 14th Assembly District, was also a winner Tuesday, receiving 46.8 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, all but guaranteeing a victory in November.

Hill garnered 37.2 percent of the Democratic vote, compared with Papan's 35.5 percent and Holober's 27.3 percent, according to election results. Papan was seeking the seat held for 20 years by her late father, Lou Papan.

She did not concede the race Wednesday, saying thousands of ballots are yet to be counted.